Optimizing Multi-DNN Parallel Inference Performance in MEC Networks: A Resource-Aware and Dynamic DNN Deployment Scheme

The advent of Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) has empowered Internet of Things (IoT) devices and edge servers to deploy sophisticated Deep Neural Network (DNN) applications, enabling real-time inference. Many concurrent inference requests and intricate DNN models demand efficient multi-DNN inference in MEC networks. However, the resource-limited IoT device/edge server and expanding model size force models to be dynamically deployed, resulting in significant undesired energy consumption. In addition, parallel multi-DNN inference on the same device complicates the inference process due to the resource competition among models, increasing the inference latency. In this paper, we propose a Resource-aware and Dynamic DNN Deployment (R3D) scheme with the collaboration of end-edge-cloud. To mitigate resource competition and waste during multi-DNN parallel inference, we develop a Resource Adaptive Management (RAM) algorithm based on the Roofline model, which dynamically allocates resources by accounting for the impact of device-specific performance bottlenecks on inference latency. Additionally, we design a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL)-based online optimization algorithm that dynamically adjusts DNN deployment strategies to achieve fast and energy-efficient inference across heterogeneous devices. Experiment results demonstrate that R3D is applicable in MEC environments and performs well in terms of inference latency, resource utilization, and energy consumption.